Grain distributing means for combines



March 21; 1933. E. W MENTOR ET AL 1,902,289

GRAIN DISTRIBUTING MEANS FOR COMBINES l March 21, 1933. E W, MENTOR` ET AL 1,902,289

GRAIN DISTRIBUTING MEANS FOR COMBINES Filed March 11, 1929 Z'Sheets-Sheet 2 Charles JScrar/g Tr will be Ydelivered Ito the Acylinder throughout EARL W. Memos ANDGHARLES Patented Mar. 21., 1933 Y uNITEDfsi-Aras PATENT) IL Sca- Auron Ja., or PEORIA, ,ILLINOIsgASSIGNOR-S T0 AVERY rownn MACHINERY co., or Broma, ILLINQIS, a coRroRArIoN orV YInLIIIoIs Y GRAIN DISTRIBUTING Mears ros' COMBINES applicati@ mea p March =11,

` This invention relatesto-combined harvestving and thresh1ng-,Vn-1ach1nes, fconlmonly termed combines, and'has to domore particularly with distribution of the cut or harvested grain, sofas to assure proper feed .thereof throughout the whole length ofith'eseparator cylinder and concave.` f I Y Y In combines, as commonly constructed,lthe -v platform or header elevatorenters `the' feed house'at one side thereof and fthe'greaterpart of the cut grain is ordinarily deliveredto the feed conveyor .adjacent they other side of the feed house. This is highlyobjectionable, as it results in overloadingfthe cylinder at one side, causing slugging and stopping thereof, as well as uneven wear on the cylinder and concave teeth.' y'

This feeding of the greater part of theharvested grain 'tol the, cylinder and concave at one side is also objectionable as causing great" vWastage,and poor cleaning on account of the Vheavy load going 'over therack and grain pan' and sieves atene side'ofthemachine. It is a common practice to employia rotating beater ments which extend parallelftoi the `slats of the feed conveyor. lThebeaterv is disposed .to engage the cut grain onv the feedconveyor to` assist in `feeding ofV this cut grain to the Y cylinderand concave, While this beater asvcave at one-side thereofj isists feeding of the cutgrai'n, it doesnotiny anyway avoid the serious`'objections,abovel noted, which result from Vfeeding i the .greater part ofthe cut grainitothecylinder and con- The mainobject of our inventionis to prof vide simple andeiicient means whereby a part of the cut grain which is delivered to feed conveyor, assuring. that the cut ,i grain y the entire lengththereof *By thus distribut- Y e Ving the out grain upon'the feed conveyorwe f avoidthe objections above noted, which are'` o inherent in the Ypresilt construction ofscombines referred to, and produce Va combine of various forms. trated by way of example,

in tlielfeed house above the :feed conveyor, tribute the Cut grain this beater having blades or equivalent eleilar to Figure '1,

i929, serial No. 345,916.;

greatly Vincreased eficie'ncyf. We have ffound" -that the desired.- distributionaof the c ut grain on the feed conveyor canbeaccomplished by providing veyor, such means being disposed to engage ythe vcut grainand shift-ordeflect it toward the.v header elevator side of the feed conveyonl -Th e means for accomplishing this desired distribution of thencut grain may assume We :provide a' beater havingk bladesy so disposed relative to 'the `feed -conveyor as-to-'accomplishl the desired distribution of thevcut grain; Inits broader aspects, our invention.comprehends any suitable means for'accomplishing the distribution of the.V cut` grain throughoutsubstantially the entire width of thel feedv conveyoror equivalent feed means used ina combine; Morespeci-licallyand'in its pre- -ferred form, our invention comprises a rotating beater having bladesy sov disposed asto engagethe cut, grain at an angle to the slats of the 'feed conveyorand which serve todison the-feed conveyor In thepreferred form illus' deflectingmeans above this `c011- in the manner stated. Further 'objects Vand .advantages of ourl invention will. appear fromy vthe detailed description;` l i* v Inthe drawings: y

VFigure lis a plan view of a feed house and ffeed'conveyorand associated parts offa comshown in elevation and the concave being Illustrated morev or less diagranimatically;

- Figure 3 is a-fraglnenta'ry plan view, simofourfinvention. i

We have illustrated plied to a combinejcomprising a yfeed house '1' in' which is Inountedthe' feed conveyor 2 whiehdelivers the harvested grain to an 'accelerating'feed rollldisposed between feed lparts ybeing broken away 'forillustrating a modified formv "ur'iinvention as apr.,

Yhina-illustrating our invention? as applied conveyor 2.and cylinder 4 and concave 5, re- 100 Y* ,of arms 11, by blades or vanes 12 secured to p mately spiral construction.v

`upon other side of the conveyor, so as Y V l means employed to accomplish this result spectively, of the separating mechanism. The accelerating feed roll 3 removes the grain from the conveyor 2 and delivers it to the cylinder and concave. This feed roll 3 constitutes the subject matter lof the copending application of J ames N. Reynolds and Charles J. Scranton, Jr., for accelerating Y feed roll, filed March 5, 1929, Serial No. 344,371. It is not thought necessary to'illustrate or describe this roll in more detail here, it being sufficient to note that this roll is preferably employed. It is particularly pointed out, however, that this rloll forms no Vpart of the present invention and, if desired, the roll 3 may be omitted, in which case the turnback or delivery end off the feed conveyor 2 will be; disposed closely adjacent the cylinder and concave in accordance with present practice. l f

A platform or header elevator 6 extends into the feed house 1 from one side thereof Vand delivers the cut grain tothe feed conveyor 2 in a known manner. Due tothe fact that the elevator 6 projects into Vthe feed house 1 above feed conveyor 2, and the mo- 1 mentum imparted to the cut grain during travel thereofwith the elevator 6, the greater part of the grain isl ordinarily depositedfeed conveyor 2 at'the'side` of the house 1 opposite to elevator 6.

To avoid this objection, we provide means wherebya part ofthe cut graininitially delivered tofeed conveyor 2 upon one side thereof is shifted or deflected toward the to be disuniformly through. `full width of such As previously noted, the.

tributed substantially out approximately the feed conveyor.

may Vassumejnumerous forms.

In Figures 1l and 2 of the drawings, we; have illustrated abeater 7` above.v the feed conveyor 2, this beater projecting( inwardly of house 1 from the side thereof opposite to` the header Velevator 6; The beater 7 com-V prises end heads 8 which are lpinned orotherto the side wall of feed'house 1. Each of the heads 8 is providedwith twoarms 11 which are disposed substantially diametrically opyposite each other and approximately radialvlyof the head. .These heads are'disposedlin different angular relation to the shaft 9 and: are connected together, through ythe medium these arms. The blades 1.2 extend across the axis of shaft 9 and are slightlytwisted transversely at their central, portions ,due to the difference in position ofarms 11 relative tov the shaft. This produces abeater `of approxi- A sprocketwheel 13'is secured'on ,shaft 9, j

adjacent the outer end of bearingsleeve 10.,`

i This wheel receives a sprocket 'chain which or stack thereon.

l sociated agitating and 'is utilized'. Y,

bracket 20 which is suitably secured to the nframe of the combine.V The stub shaft 19 is adjustable'in bracket 20, in a suitable manner to take up undesirable slack in the sprocketchain. This sprocket chain is driven in any suitable orfpreferred manner as from the shaft for driving the header. f Obviously,

s the 'drive for this chain may bextaken from anyv other suitablev shaft or driven part of themachine.v f j The beater 7 is driven in a vcounterclockwise direction, as considered in Figure 2, the

accelerating feed roll 3 Vbeingv driven inla clockwise direction, as considered in this figure of the drawings.A

Y During operation of they machine, the greater part of the cut grain, including the straw, is deposited upon one side of the'fed conveyor, 2 and forms a relatively high pile y As this stackadvances with the conveyor, it is engaged by the beater 7 which, due to the spiral varrangement of the blades 12, acts in a manner to shift a part vof the cut grain towardthe opposite-sideof the feed conveyor and to distributelitsubstantially uniformly throughout approximately the full width thereof. Y

Y In this mamnner, we assure ,substantially uniform delivery of the cut grain to the cylinder and .concave vthroughout the whole length thereof.` :This avoids slugging of the cylinder and improper cleaning and'sepa- Y ration and also greatly increases theeliiciency V'of the machine since the entire length ofthe cylinder and concave isv employed andy theentirewidthof. the-straw rack, sieves and asseparating mechanism .While we prefer-to employ the spiral form of beater illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, it is not essential that-a beater of this particular construction `.be employed, since it is feasible to employ la beater having straight blades disposedat an inclination across the feed conveyor. .Onefform of such a beater. is il- `lustrated"inFigure 3. Inthis form, the :beater comprises heads 21 `provided With diametrically opposite and radially extending arms 22,v theseheads beingk pinned or otherwise suitablysecured on the-.shaft 235 They arms 22 of-the'heads are aligned lengthwise of shaft'23 and are connected byspaced bladesor vanes 24 suitably secured thereto..

Shaft-23 is"rotatably'mountedy in a bearing sleeve 25 suitably secured to house l. This sleeve is disposed at an inclination transversely of feed conveyor 2, so that the shaft 23 and blades 24 of the beater are also disposed at an inclination transversely of the feed conveyor.

A bevel gear 26 is secured on the outer end of shaft 23 and meshes with a pinion 27 rotatably mounted on a stub shaft 28 extending from a bracket 29 secured to the side of house l.

A sprocket wheel 30 is also rotatably mounted on the stub shaft 29 and is confined between the neck of pinion 27 and a stop collar 3l suitably secured to shaft 28. Pinion 27 is connected to sprocket wheel 30 to turn therewith, in a suitable manner, as by being clutched to the hub of the sprocket wheel, or the sprocket wheel and the pinion may be formed integrally, if desired.

The sprocket wheel 30 is driven by a sprocket chain, from a suitable takeoif on the combine, the drive being such that the sprocket wheel rotates in a clockwise direction, as considered in Figure 3. This rotates the beater in a. counter-clockwise direction, as considered in this ligure, and the blades 24 of this beater act to shift a part of the cut grain transversely of the feed conveyor 2 toward the opposite side thereof in much the same manner as the blades of the beater 7 act. This serves to distribute the grain substantially uniformly and approximately throughout the entire width of the feed conveyor 2, with the attendant advantages heretofore enumerated.

As above indicated, and as will be understood by those skilled in the art, changes in the construction and arrangement of parts of our invention can be resorted to without departing from the field and scope of the same, and we intend to include all such variations, as fall within the scope of the appended claims, in this application in which the preferred forms only of our invention are disclosed.

What we claim is:

l. In combination in a combined harvesting and threshing machine, a cylinder and concave, mea-ns comprising a feed conveyor for delivering the cut grain'to the cylinder and concave, means for delivering the cut grain in a loose and unbound condition to the feed conveyor at one side thereof, and a beater mounted to rotate on an axis and extending above and transversely of the conveyor at said side thereof, said beater comprising blades disposed lengthwise and at opposite sides of the axis thereof, said blades extending across said axis and being oppositely related for shifting the cut grain from the side of the conveyor at which the grain is delivered toward the other side of the conveyor, the respective blades having less than therealong.

av complete turn about the axis of the beater, and the outer edges of the blades being smooth and continuous.

2. In combination in a combined harvesting and threshing machine, a cylinder and concave, means comprising a feed conveyor for delivering cut grain to the cylinder and concave, mea-ns for delivering the cut grain in a loose and unbound condition onto the conveyor at one side thereof, and a rotating beater above the conveyor and including a shaft having spirally arranged elements disposed on diametrically opposed sides of said shaft and terminating at the center of said conveyor to engage the grain upon such side of the conveyor and shift it toward the other side of the conveyor, said elements being free of obstructions to travel ofthe cut grain 3. In combination in a combined harvesting and threshing machine, a Vcylinder and concave, means comprising a feed conveyor for delivering cut grain to the cylinder and concave, means for delivering the cut grain in a loose and unbound condition onto the conveyor at one side thereof, and a rotating beater above the conveyor and including a shaft having spirally arranged elements disposed on diametrically opposite sides thereof and ext/ending only to the center of said conveyor to engage the grain upon such side of the conveyor and shift it toward the other side of the conveyor, the outer edge of said elements being uninterrupted and free of obstructions to travel of the cut grain there-v along.

K In witness whereof, we hereunto subscribe our names this 6th day of March, 1929.

EARL l/V. MEN TOR. CHARLES J. SGRANTON, JR. 

